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NewYork-Presbyterian today celebrated 125 years of providing comprehensive, compassionate mental health care, and adopted a new name for its Westchester campus to reflect its expanded role in behavioral health: NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center.

“For 125 years, NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center has been an incredible resource for patients and families seeking comprehensive, compassionate care for mental health needs,” said Dr. Laura Forese, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NewYork-Presbyterian. “We honor this legacy as we continue our innovative and pioneering work in psychiatry today. Our new name reflects our commitment to providing patient-centered behavioral health care, support and services for our patients.”

Since opening its doors in White Plains, New York, in 1894, the newly named NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center has been at the forefront of the movement known as moral treatment, with Weill Cornell Medicine psychiatrists providing patient-centered care in facilities specifically designed to offer the tranquility and activities required for mental health healing. The movement also focused on treating patients with dignity, compassion and respect. Today, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s psychiatry specialty is ranked among the top five in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report.

“We are deeply proud to be a part of NewYork-Presbyterian’s long history of excellence in psychiatric care and putting patients’ needs first,” said Dr. Philip Wilner, senior vice president and chief operating officer of NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center, and a professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine. “We are so pleased to celebrate this milestone anniversary and our commitment to clinical excellence, an outstanding patient experience, translational research and educational innovation.”

For more than a century, NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center has provided care for children, adolescents, adults and older adults from all backgrounds by offering services across the continuum of behavioral health care including inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient programs. Programs include the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain, a state-of-the-art facility serving children, adults and families dealing with autism spectrum disorders; the Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry, offering specialized care for depression and mood disorders in older adults; and the Center for Eating Disorders, designed to help individuals with eating disorders work toward recovery in a comfortable and supportive environment.

NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center is consistently recognized for its excellence in care. In 2011, it was the first behavioral health hospital in the nation to be formally named by Planetree Inc. as a “Planetree Designated Patient-Centered Hospital” in recognition of its achievement and innovation in the delivery of patient-centered care. At the end of 2018, the campus, including NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center’s Psychiatry Program, received national recognition for excellence in nursing from the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program®, the most prestigious distinction that a health care organization can earn for nursing.

The anniversary arrives at a time when millions of people in the U.S. are affected by mental illnesses – one in five U.S. adults experience mental illness each year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

NewYork-Presbyterian

NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the nation’s most comprehensive, integrated academic healthcare systems, encompassing 10 hospital campuses across the Greater New York area, more than 200 primary and specialty care clinics and medical groups, and an array of telemedicine services. A leader in medical education, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the only academic medical center in the nation affiliated with two world-class medical schools, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. This collaboration means patients have access to the country’s leading physicians, the full range of medical specialties, latest innovations in care, and research that is developing cures and saving lives.

Ranked the #5 hospital in the nation and #1 in New York in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” survey, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is also recognized as among the best in the nation in every pediatric specialty evaluated in the U.S. News “Best Children’s Hospitals” survey. Founded nearly 250 years ago, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has a long legacy of medical breakthroughs and innovation, from the invention of the Pap test to the first successful pediatric heart transplant, to pioneering the groundbreaking heart valve replacement procedure called TAVR.

NewYork-Presbyterian’s 47,000 employees and affiliated physicians are dedicated to providing the highest quality, most compassionate care to New Yorkers and patients from across the country and around the world. NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals are not for profit and provide more than $1 billion in benefits every year to the community, including medical care, school-based health clinics and support for more than 300 community programs and activities.

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NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center

NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center, opened in 1894, is one of the world’s most advanced centers for psychiatric care. NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center, in collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine physicians, serves children, adolescents, adults and the elderly, offering comprehensive outpatient care, day treatment, partial hospitalization and inpatient services. Weill Cornell Medicine psychiatrists, in addition to providing clinical treatment, engage in interdisciplinary medical research and education at the Westchester Behavioral Health Center. NewYork-Presbyterian also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, and NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital,NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, and NewYork-Presbyterian Queens. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the #1 hospital in the New York metropolitan area and #5 in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report, and consistently named to the magazine’s Honor Roll of best hospitals in the nation. For more information, visit www.nyp.org.